Joko Anwar, Janji Joni, and Naked in Circle K...

Joko Anwar, movie director of Janji Joni fame, promised that if he ever reached 3000 followers on twitter that he would do the Circle K naked run. A promise is a promise.

However, this sort of promise was, and always is, like a red rag to a bull. In next to no time, Anwar not only had 3000 followers on his twitter account but had sky-rocketed to more than 13,000 followers. I guess getting to see a director naked in Circle K gets some people in. I am wondering though if he is inclined to make another promise. For example, if he reaches 30,000 followers he will get naked at Monas, or if he reaches 50,000 followers he will walk naked round Grand Indonesia plaza or something, and at a more popular time like during the lunch rush hour?

For those of you who don't tweet and who think twittering and tweeting are things that birds (with feathers) do, then you can check out the photo above. The photo has an appropriately placed large red dot. I have heard that the dot is in fact larger than it really needed to be. Unfortunately, if you do not twitter or tweet then this news is coming late to you.

Some people will do anything to get a little publicity or to become popular. I am sure this has to violate a number of laws and regulations. I wonder if the Indonesian authorities are going to do anything about this public display of human flesh.

Nevertheless, it might be good news for Circle K as this might reinvigorate a trend and be a boon for sales as people hang around waiting for the next celebrity to offer to do the Circle K naked run when they hit a pre-agreed number of followers on twitter. I wonder, should I promise to get naked somewhere if I reach a 1000 followers on this blog? I really don't think that promising to get naked in my case would help, as I cannot think of one person that might be even slightly intrigued at seeing me naked.

This is probably also a good advertisement for social networking media like twitter as it highlights the immediacy with which information, and in this case, photos, can change hands.

Child Marries The Money Lender -- Dad Now Debt Free

This is one of those moments that you just sit back in your chair, shake your head, and say WTF is wrong with the world.

Being a father of a wonderful and cute son, I cannot fathom ever contemplating trading the little fella in to pay off a debt. Maybe I do not understand absolute poverty and the absolute desperation that comes with such abject poverty, but all the same my humanity does not allow me to consider my son as a chattel that can be bought, sold, or traded.

Yet, the police in Muladi in Southern Bangladesh are investigating the reports that a 13-year-old has been married off to a 75-year-old money lender as a way of paying off a debt owed by the father to the money lender. The police have yet to unravel the alleged financial arrangements and what the transaction involved.

However, it is reported that the debt was for about 4000 taka, which is about AUD 66. The debt apparently arose when the girl's father borrowed some money from the money lender for repairs to the family home after cyclone Aila in May 2009. It is also reported that the father of the girl also borrowed a cow from the money lender.

In Bangladesh's defense, it is a criminal offense to marry a girl under 18 years of age.However, the practice of child brides is allegedly rampant among Muslims, and many parents alter the age of their daughters on official documents in order to skirt this prohibition.

As I said, I cannot imagine the desperation that would lead one to, in essence, sell their child.